System Process Unknown
by IronAmerica
Summary: Father's sectors are corrupted, they think. Spoilers for 209: Everyone Says I Love You.


So, that episode. Wow. What. Have a new fic.

Un-beta'ed, so quibble away.

- o – o -

System Process Unknown

The nanites looked down at _Father_ and felt some form of human emotion. _Father_ had been hurt. He said _Kill_ and they had. He was afraid. They took him away. The woman he wanted – they knew his things as well as they knew _Father_ – was with him. They brought her too.

_Father_ was left in the library of a school. The nanites formed something that they knew _Father_ knew. It felt emotion. This form. The form was one of _Father's_ things. _Father_ liked the boy with yellow hair. They did not know why – there was no biological connection, no wish to make one as he had with the woman – but they made it. They had a frame of reference. _Father_ had spent years teaching the boy. They thought – if they thought at all – that _Father_ had spent years teaching them with the boy. The boy was them. They were the boy.

They had considered making themselves a friend of _Father_. But there was no connection to the boy with brown hair anymore. _Father_ was dreaming of the people he had lost. The woman he had a biological connection with – the new one, not the old one who lived in what was called California – was dreamt of. They repaired her. _Father_ wanted her. He wanted her to live. But he also wanted the other humans who had hurt them to die/not die. _Father_ was conflicted.

Perhaps his sectors were damaged.

They checked, to make sure. _Father_ could not be damaged in any way. They felt relief – if they could feel that, and not as a residual thing from one of _Father's_ things/humans – as they stepped back using their form's feet. _Father_ was not damaged. He would be alright.

_Father _awoke. He stared at them, as though they were a ghost. But they were them and he was _Father_. They checked his sectors for corruption again. Nothing was damaged. Humans were fragile. They looked at the map and spoke of a ball of twine in Ohio. _Father_ was confused. They left when it became clear his sectors would not provide other information.

They return when the woman awakens. _Father_ tells them to leave when it becomes clear that the woman cannot see them. _Father_ tells them to leave him alone. They are confused. Haven't they done what _Father_ wanted? They rescued his things. They saved _Father_. Have they really been so terrible?

They are told to stop wearing the face of the boy with yellow hair. But they ignore _Father_. The boy is theirs, more than he was ever a thing that belonged to _Father_. The boy is theirs. He is not a Nintendo game. He is not the boy from the third grade that _Father_ was friends with. They smile and keep the boy's face when they leave.

_Father_ calls them back. One of his things has died. They stare at the woman, perplexed. _Father_ stares at the man with no hair. They see that his sectors are corrupted. He will die soon, even if _Father_ ordered them to intervene. A simple system reset will not save the man. A simple reset will save the woman that _Father_ has made biological connections with. It is curious that he does not. He only thinks in thoughts that prove his sectors are corrupted. He thinks of the boy dying. But _Father_ does not want them to bring the boy back to life. _Father_ does not think of bringing the woman back.

He says

"Kill them. Kill them all."

They attempt to explain why his commands are wrong. _Father_ asks them to kill. Then he tells them not to kill. He sent them away when they could have saved the woman. He tells them to save her.

_Father's_ sectors are corrupted with grief. He yells that Danny would save the woman. The boy with the yellow hair. One of the things that belongs/does not belong to _Father_.

They do not have the heart to tell _Father_ that her sectors have failed too much for a system restore. They fade away.

The feeling is guilt.

They feel guilt.

It is _Father's_ fault.

They do not blame him, and go to look for someone who knows the boy with the yellow hair.

- o – o -

So, what did you think? Good? Bad? Want more of the creepy nanites? Drop a line and let me know.


End file.
